please empty your brain below

I reckon there are at least another two pier railways in Britain: Ryde, on the Isle of Wight and Hythe, not too far away in Hampshire.
Ah, the Southend Pier Railway. There's no sound quite like the 'clackety-clackety-clack' made by the train as it travels over the oft-jointed track.

Am I right in thinking that there is a car from the railway's previous electric incarnation beside the station at the landside end?
I went to Southend in March, as a birthday treat (yes, really), and loved every bit of the day. One of the highlights of the pier was seeing the flocks of Turnstones roosting at the far end, plus a few active ones which were scurrying around looking for food and didn't seem too bothered by people.
(My partner and I did the pier by foot. Everyone talks about the pier famously being "a mile long." It's actually not, it's longer: we passed the mile marker quite a while before we reached the end.)
Blackpool North Pier has a tramway. Or had a tramway. I can't quite tell. Some webpages imply it closed.
Southport Pier also has a railway. Any more out there?

dg, are you game, now you're all out of random London boroughs....
The one at Ryde (IofW) is part of the regular railway and continues inland.
Hythe Pier Railway must be the shortest 700yds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hythe_Pier,_Railway_and_Ferry
I lived in Southend for several years, and I would dispute that the pier is less alluring in February...being out in the middle of the melancholy estuarine mist at the end of winter can be quite wonderful... Good to see that something is (finally) again being done at the end of the pier, after all the fires and disasters, but the bookers clearly need a bit more imagination tomake the most of the new pavilion...
If only you had told us you were coming, we could have met up!
Since this posting on 20 August, I cannot access DG at work as the filters think there is an unsafe link on the website.
Has anything changed on DG?
No obvious changes, sorry Andrew. I'd say the links in this Southend post are particularly 'safe'. But there are lots and lots of links on the blog, so it's hard to say which one a filter might have taken offence to.
For what it's worth, I got a Virus warning from your link marked 'hang around'.
One summer bank holiday my parents decided to visit Southend without checking the weather forecast. It came on to rain as Dad insisted we take a bracing walk to the end. On we trudged as the rain got worse and everyone else stayed in shelter - save for one little speck in the distance that came slowly towards us. Eventually it turned out to be the proverbial little old lady in a plastic mac and rain-hood. As she passed us she simply plodded on, looking at the decking, and said, in the broadest Northern accent, "Loovly bloody holiday!". It's been a family saying ever since.
Did you pop into the museum under the pier? They've an old pier tramcar, which is much prettier than the current sets.

One of the cars went off to North Wales and was scrapped. Another is at the The Lynn Tait Gallery, Southend; and another was un Southend Parks Nursery. Another was a maintenance car and is at Mangapps Farm Railway.

I think they're really rather lovely.

Hythe Pier in Hants has a super line with ancient electric locos. Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timmydunn/sets/72157609955177527/


But none matched the Southport Silver Belle set, which consisted two steam-outline loco chassis with the steam loco bodies taken off and then streamlined bodies added: you can see a pic in this thread:

http://s9.zetaboards.com/MRW_Forums/topic/98851/1/

A lot of piers had miniature railways on them for pleasure and useful for transporting people up and down too. Clacton had a lovely line, as did Bognor at one time.

Don't forget also those piers like Portsmouth or Kyle of Lochalsh where the station extended across the water over the pier, or was the pier itself.

I'm a bit obsessive about the seaside and its railways. No apologies.
Incidentally, the museum I recall had signs saying NO PHOTOS all over it, which really annoyed me. I think we took some video instead, just because.
AND FINALLY

there's a single-car train as well, presumably for quiet periods. http://www.weekendnotes.co.uk/im/000/04/southend-pier-pier-pleasure-pier-longest-pier-sout11.jpg Postcards that I bought didn't show that one.










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